[Anime] Spring Anime 2026 -Intro-

This is a spring anime season that leaves me feeling anxious about how it will follow the winter season, which was a festival of major titles.

📊Expectation Rating

🎁Classroom of the Elite 4th Season

After failing to promote to Class A in the final special exam of their first year and being demoted back to Class D, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and his classmates spend spring break and then welcome the new school term as second-year students. They start the new school year with Kei Karuizawa as his girlfriend and Suzune Horikita having let go of her obsession with her brother, with everyone having undergone changes throughout their first year.

The first special exam for second-year students is a “written exam taken in pairs with new students”. However, among the new first-year students, a White Room assassin sent by Acting Director Tsukishiro has infiltrated the school, and a new threat targeting Ayanokoji brings turmoil to the academy.

The appeal of the 4th Season lies in how the human relationships and strategies built up during the first-year arc expand all at once into a “battle across grade levels” upon entering the second-year arc. As Ayanokoji takes on the pair exam with a new student, the tension of a White Room assassin lurking covers the entire story, leading to a more multi-dimensional psychological battle that differs from the class and grade-level conflicts seen so far. With his romantic relationship with Karuizawa, Horikita's mental growth, and the complex intertwining of the intentions of key characters like Ryuen, Ichinose, and Sakayanagi, I am more curious than ever about “how Ayanokoji will move.”

🎁That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4

After the Founding Festival, the Jura Tempest Federation establishes diplomatic relations with various countries and begins to move toward the realization of a “Human-Monster Co-Prosperity Sphere,” a world where humans and monsters live together. Rimuru has established a solid position as a Demon Lord, and Tempest appears to be on the path to prosperity.

However, behind the scenes, forces that view Rimuru's rapid rise as a threat begin to move. The former “Hero” Granbell Rosso, who leads the Five Elders of the Sorcerer's Dynasty, and his granddaughter Mariabell Rosso, seem to be plotting something evil, devising schemes to eliminate Rimuru under the banner of “protecting humanity through domination.”

The fun of the 4th Season lies in the fact that Tempest's prosperity turns into “global-scale tension,” and the story expands all at once into a conflict at the level of international politics. Rimuru's existence is no longer just a problem for one nation, but is treated as the “rise of a Demon Lord” that shakes the balance of the world, and the strategies devised by the former hero Granbell and Mariabell will shake Tempest's ideals to their core. Furthermore, with Leon starting to move, the intentions of the Demon Lords become complexly intertwined, and Rimuru's battle seems set to become a highlight of this season as it shifts from mere defense to a choice of “how to shape the future of the world.”

🎁Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5

The hopeless college student, Kazuya Kinoshita, has continued his relationship with the neat and lovely “rental girlfriend” Chizuru Mizuhara while keeping up the lie to both his family and friends that she is his “real girlfriend.” Having succeeded in crowdfunding for a movie production and solidified his feelings for Chizuru, Kazuya finally enters the stage of making a “resolve.” However, behind the scenes, the approach of his “girlfriend (provisional),” Ruka Sarashina, who aggressively pursues Kazuya, accelerates even further, and his ex-girlfriend Mami Nanami, who knows about the relationship between Kazuya and Chizuru, closes in on Chizuru. As Mami's past is revealed, the lies Kazuya has told begin to crumble all at once, and the story rushes toward the climax of the “Hawaiians Arc.”

The appeal of the 5th Season lies in the fact that the “lies” and “true feelings” that have been built up until now finally collide, and the relationship between Kazuya and Chizuru faces its greatest trial. With Mami holding Chizuru's profile as a rental girlfriend and the crisis of Kazuya's lies being exposed looming, what choice Chizuru will make, and how far Kazuya can stick to his “true feelings,” seem to be the heart of the story.

🎁Akane-banashi

The protagonist is a girl named Akane Osaki, who grew up fascinated by the rakugo of her father, the rakugo performer Shinta Arakawa. Her father takes on a big challenge for “promotion to Shin-uchi,” but at that stage, Akane witnesses a shocking incident that shakes the rakugo world: her father is expelled.

Then, six years later, Akane, now a high school student, carries her father's regret in her heart and steps onto the path of training, aiming for the highest rank in the rakugo world, “Shin-uchi”. It is a story where she works hard at training under the Arakawa school, meets intense rivals such as the student rakugo genius
Karashi Nerimaya and the popular voice actor and talented performer Hikaru Kōragi, and throws herself into a harsh world where she must “
win with her stories.”

The appeal of “Akane-banashi” lies in the fact that while it uses the classical performing art of rakugo as its subject, it fuses the intensity of a sports manga with the growth story of a youth drama at a high level. While Akane carries her father's regret, she does not act solely out of a desire for revenge, but rather cultivates “pride as a rakugo performer” within herself. In the process, the details of rakugo—such as gestures, timing, voice, and facial expressions—are carefully depicted, and the setting is excellent in that it is structured so that the viewer experiences the depth of rakugo along with Akane's growth. Expectations are high for this authentic youth rakugo story where
technique, mindset, and resolve are tested within the traditional performing art of rakugo.

🎁Kill Blue

The legendary hitman Juzo Ogami was feared as the “strongest hitman” who would reliably carry out any request. One day, immediately after finishing a mission to destroy an organization, he is stung by a mysterious bee and collapses.

When he wakes up, Juzo has gone from a 39-year-old adult to the appearance of a 13-year-old middle school student. Without being able to grasp the situation, a new order arrives from the boss of the assassination organization “Z.O.O.” for Juzo. “In that form, infiltrate a middle school,” and thus, Juzo ends up “transferring” into Tachibana Academy Middle School.

With remote support from his partner Kotatsu Nekota, he encounters eccentric students such as the daughter of a major corporation, Noren Mitsuoka, an assassin from the Chinese assassination organization "Yuigang," Shin Kobazame, and Tenma Tendo from the school's elite group, the "Unicorns," depicting a world where his "past as a hitman" and "present as a middle schooler" intersect.

🎁Farming Life in Another World 2

After living a sickly life and dying in solitude, a young man named Hiraku Machio is reincarnated into another world by the grace of God, where he begins his long-desired "laid-back farming life." As he clears land deep in the forest with the help of his almighty farming tool, a diverse group of companions—including vampires, elves, beastkin, angels, and dragons—gather, and Hiraku's farm eventually develops into a bustling settlement known as "Village of the Great Tree."

In the second season, as the village grows, visitors arrive constantly, and new crops, new residents, and new troubles keep piling up for Hiraku. The story depicts how his daily life is colored by a busyness that can hardly be called "laid-back," due to the increased workload from the village's expansion, interactions with various races, and building relationships with external forces.

The charm of "Farming Life in Another World 2" lies in the pleasant gap unique to slow-life works, where the more the village expands, the more trouble arises, contrary to Hiraku's wish to "take it easy." The Village of the Great Tree, where various races like vampires, elves, angels, and dragons live together, is depicted as a warm community where residents with different cultures and values naturally harmonize, and the fact that Hiraku's personality is at the center of it is carefully portrayed, making its heartwarming feel another one of its charms.

🎁Drops of God

A young man named Shizuku Kanzaki, who works in the sales department of Taiyo Beer, has never once drunk wine, despite being the son of the world-renowned wine critic Yutaka Kanzaki. Suddenly, Shizuku receives news of his father's death and the will he left behind. In it, there is a challenge stating that he will bequeath his inheritance to whoever can correctly identify the 12 great wines chosen by Yutaka, the "Twelve Apostles," and the legendary bottle that stands at their pinnacle, "Drops of God," along with all of their brand names and vintage years.

With zero knowledge of wine, Shizuku takes on the "trials" surrounding his father's world-class wine collection with the help of a sommelier apprentice he meets by chance, Miyabi Shinohara, in this wine battle story.

📚Overall Review

While the previous season had major titles like Oshi no Ko and Jujutsu Kaisen, I thought this time wouldn't be as significant, but there were three S-rank sequels here as well: Classroom of the Elite 4th Season, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4, and Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5.

Also, two new anime, Akane-banashi and Kill Blue entered the A+ rank, and including Farming Life in Another World 2 and Drops of God in the A rank, the lineup has high expectations.

The content turned out to have higher expectations than I thought. Since the dramas are mediocre, I have high hopes for the anime.